


No Room In This Hell, No Room In The Next

by L_awlietxoxx



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Blood and Violence, F/M, Possible Character Death, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 18:21:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18998023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_awlietxoxx/pseuds/L_awlietxoxx
Summary: All memory of gentleness at Ben’s touch was sacrificed to the pierce of twin fangs.Ben goes missing. He returns different. Soon both he and Rey find themselves targeted in a world of menace and immortals.





	No Room In This Hell, No Room In The Next

**Author's Note:**

> The song "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" by MCR sparked inspiration in almost every fandom I've written for, but only after listening to it recently with Reylo as the subjects was I finally fully moved to write the story. What grips me about this song is the deep sense of desolation and desperation, matched only by the emotional core of a driving love one would do anything to protect. I matched the song with a few more that fit the aura and setting of the story. The songs' lyrics influenced the plot, while their atmosphere is exactly what I was trying to achieve in the texture of the writing. I made a spotify playlist of the few songs [here!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gKuazcxlhOaBKEyGelDK7)
> 
> I also incorporated a few lyrics directly from the songs. I hope they don't come off as awkward, but there were a few lines I felt that I really needed to work in to add to the feel of this supernatural world. I would love if people give a listen since the music was really so integral in writing this.
> 
> This is also wayyy off from the type of writing I normally do, so I really look forward to people's responses!
> 
> (Shout out to [monsterleadmehome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/monsterleadmehome/pseuds/monsterleadmehome) for making me the beautiful mood board. Thank you!)

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/181686886@N04/47948472956/in/dateposted-public/)

All memory of gentleness at Ben’s touch was sacrificed to the pierce of twin fangs. 

At first, Rey couldn’t process the pain. She had to be dreaming. The latest nightmare after Ben went missing over a month ago. Then, the sound of broken, despairing sobs drifted through the haze of agony shrouding her sight. Unthinkable as it seemed that anyone else could feel such terrible pain, that voice must have. Gradually, the inarticulate noises of grief took the shape of her name. 

Ben’s voice. Perhaps Rey had died, and he was already here, calling her away from the hurt of the mortal realm. 

No. 

Rey grimaced and made a sound of agony, suddenly aware again of her own heart surging and clinging to life in her chest. Aware of the hot tang of her own blood pooling out of her throat. All too aware that whatever afterlife there might be – it had no place for the wretched anguish in Ben’s voice. 

Rey fought her eyes open, desperate to see him. The moment a dark, tall form began to take shape above her, sirens overtook him. 

~

Diagnosis: A wild animal attack. As the doctors said, Rey was lucky to have escaped with her life, a month-long hospital stay, and the promise of a permanent scar. 

Her family rotated through crying, her friends appeared with strained smiles and disguised fear in their eyes at the volume of bandages still dyed red every hour. 

Rey had only one question: What happened to Ben?

“Rey, you were probably delirious.”

“I wasn’t. I’d know him anywhere.”

“Rey… you know he’s been missing for weeks. How would he suddenly find you at that exact moment?”

“It was his voice. He was calling out, trying to save me from whatever did this.”

“Rey, we know you miss him and you’re worried about him still. But in your current state, it might be best for you to face the reality that he might be…”

Rey turned angrily towards the wall, curling up on her side. 

“I think it’s time you left.”

Rey fought back the tears as her friends departed in regretful silence. She clasped her hands together over her chest, turning the silver ring on her left hand. 

Ben was alive. Somehow, she could still sense him even now. She knew it in her bones. She could sense it in her veins. 

Why wouldn’t he come to her?

~

Her memory could only face the truth in dream. 

Rey had been outside the dive bar where she and Ben had shared the sloppiest and most fondly remembered dates. She’d stopped by almost every night since he disappeared over a month ago without a word of warning. She would sit at the bar drinking a beer, thinking he was sure to walk in and find her here, if she only waited another hour. Just one more hour…

It was later than usual; the night a little darker. Halfway to her car, Rey stopped in the middle of the abandoned parking lot when she saw him. 

Shrouded in shadow, dressed in dark clothes she’d never seen him wear before, but she knew him instantly. 

Rey had sobbed in relieved disbelief, immediately rushing towards him. 

But he’d darted farther back into the shadows – A strange hissing noise filling the air between them. 

“Ben… I don’t understand… Where have you _been_ , I was so scared something had happened…”

“ _Stay away_ ,” he’d ground out in what could only be called a growl. A sound that reverberated through Rey’s entire body, making the hair on her arms stand on end and her feet freeze automatically. “Rey. _Stay back._ ”

Tears dripped down her face. “What’s going on, Ben? What happened to you? Please… Let me see you. I need to see you.”

He barked another order to keep away, but Rey pushed forward through the weight that had gathered in her limbs from the dark force behind his voice.

She didn’t understand. All she knew was Ben was alive; he was standing right in front of her after missing for so long. It wasn’t possible for her to stay away. Not for the entire world. 

Then a cry of mania and bloodlust. Then a weight slamming into her, pinning her to the asphalt. Then the lancing slice into her neck, and a stream of dark red that ended at the crescent moons between Ben’s lips. 

His eyes glowed. 

~

She woke screaming until nurses ran with sedatives.

~

Rey’s horror dissipated with the night. Ben was alive. It was likely that whatever he’d done had connected them somehow. That was why her blood seemed to be sparking in her veins; Why she swore she could feel his presence just outside these damn hospital walls. 

He’d warned her. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. She remembered the terrible sound of his weeping, afterwards. 

Had he thought she was dying? Or was it some other fate for her that he feared?

Possessed by utter insanity – Rey found herself hoping the supernatural heat in her veins would remain. Hoping that whatever had gripped Ben since he went missing might have seized her too, so they could disappear together.

_So you can drag me through hell / If it meant I could hold your hand._

~

“I tried everything to die. Everything. I threw myself in front of a train. Shot myself in the mouth. Went off a building. Entire bottles of pills. None of it worked. And I felt none of it, compared to watching you die with the taste of your blood in my mouth.”

Rey looked up into his face – Unmarred by anything but torturous remorse. Slowly, she reached up to cup his cheek. Ben shuddered, eyes slipping closed as his hand came up to cradle hers, holding it there and grounding himself in the warmth of her skin. Losing himself in the contrast. The blessed respite of her still-beating heart. 

“But I didn’t die, Ben. I’m here.”

Her hair shone gold.

~

He’d thought nothing could compare to the fire that had scorched the life from him, then rebirthed him anew. He could imagine nothing worse than bleeding to death for the amusement of a monster, then being left to drag his way back from the grave, broken and wracked with ravenous, violent hunger. 

Until that moment his new, irrepressible hunger had plunged him into a blind burst of all-consuming compulsion. Until he came to, with Rey crumpled beneath him in the dirt and his traitorous abomination of a body flooding with thrill as her hot, fresh blood pumped through him. In the dirt, he wretched in horror, until the heaves gave way to sobs. Until the heavens stopped crashing down around him.

This was why he’d fought himself to stay as far away from her as he could. This was why he’d suffered alone for the past month, vowing to himself that he wouldn’t seek her out. No matter how he longed to see her; longed for her soothing touch; ached to hear her voice comforting him, he would leave her free and untouched by this horror that had closed around him. 

Until he couldn’t. Until he’d doomed her too. 

~

After the hospital, Rey found him again when she watched him break a man in two with his bare hands. She’d been alone on her porch, rifling for her keys. Her neck barely healed, still under a bleach white bandage. 

With strange presentiment, she sensed the growing dread of a presence closing in on her. When she turned, the tall shape of a burly man blocked the moon. 

It wasn’t Ben. 

Rey shrunk back against the still-locked door as he advanced on her. 

“Blood of the angel,” the man growled in shadow. “You will surrender to me.”

A dark blur tore from the edge of the trees. It launched itself at the stalking figure with a savage sound near a roar. The ensuing struggle ended in seconds – Violent, darting movements far too quick for Rey’s eyes to follow. Not until the growling stranger’s neck was twisted and spine audibly cracked, did Rey recognize Ben.

The stranger crumpled at his feet, Ben looked up at her with a blaze in his eyes. 

Rey felt no fear. Ben showing himself to her again was all she had wanted. 

Words battled across her tongue.

_Where did you go? Why did you leave? Who did this to you?_

_Why do you seem to have passed years in misery since you were last mine?_

Instead: “What…. what was that?”

Ben spared not a look for the man at his feet. 'Thing' – Rey decided was a better word.

He stared at only her. Rey watched his jaw work; watched his fists squeeze together at his sides; watched agony overtake his eyes. 

“Consequence.”

And then, through the delirious barrage of all her sweet, supple scents, he noticed: Beneath the bandage at her neck came the call of still-flowing blood. In her wrist and along her neck, a pulse still beat. 

He didn’t understand, but it didn’t much matter. He knew there would still be no escape, no going back. 

As what remained of his heart refused to spare him such torments, Ben felt the phantom stab as he pictured the normal, mortal lives they might have shared. Followed by another crippling blow as he imagined the alternate life of safety she might have still kept regardless of all this, if not for his moment of abject weakness. He watched it all break apart into tiny, irrevocable shards that cut his fingers.

His unfeeling eyes stung with the need for tears. With the need for his heart to beat for just one more moment – If only to feel this loss with all the pain that only humanity could bear. 

Ben sank to his knees before her, his head bowed. Unable to look at her, it wasn’t until her fingers slid into his hair that he began to shake apart at her feet.

“Forgive me,” he moaned, his cold brow at her knees as he began repeating the words in an endless litany.

~

She let him drink from her. 

After she held out a hand to invite him through the doorway. After the layered scents of her cloying the air ignited his irrepressible hunger. 

Well after he realized he should have already left. That it was far too late. 

Somehow, Rey sensed the shift in the air. That thrumming spark in her veins blazed haywire. She turned and found Ben shrunk back from her – The same wild spark dancing in his eyes where they were fixated upon her.

“You’re…. hungry,” Rey marveled in a whisper. She didn’t know how she knew. She didn’t know how any of this was possible. She certainly didn’t know how she remained so calm. 

She did know one thing for sure: She’d seen Ben capable of terrifying violence, but she’d also never seen him so clearly broken. She’d never seen his eyes so helplessly hollow. Never heard his silent cries so loud. 

What she knew for sure: She would give him whatever he needed. Whatever he wanted. Whatever it took for him to look up to the sky with just a little bit of hope. To know he wasn’t alone. Whatever brought him close to her again.

“Let me,” she whispered, beginning to peel away the bandage from her neck. 

Ben released a hiss mingled with a high keen. Didn’t Rey know what she was doing to him? Didn’t she know the sight of the bloody impressions he’d left in her neck made him want to burn his eyes out; Made him want to rip himself to the core to distract from his agonizing need to taste them?

Didn’t she know he’d rather leave her forever than hurt her again? But the thought of her blood calling up a monster other than him had ignited fear that overwhelmed everything. The thought of losing her for good made him a coward after all - Sucking all his good intentions dry. 

“Let me,” she repeated, drawing close.

“Rey,” he gritted, his balled fists trembling at his sides as his chest heaved in labored, unbreathing motions. Pulling away from her made every starving, yearning cell in his body screech in protest bordering madness. 

With her – He wanted to be more than this. He wanted to be the man who’d loved her, not the beast that preyed on her.

“Rey,” he ground out, voice deep as night and rough as blades. “Your blood… You’re the only one I yearn for, and the only one I never want to touch. I’ve lost myself and attacked strangers because it hurt so badly staying away from you… but the taste just made me sick.”

“I don’t want you drinking anyone else,” Rey breathed, stepping into his space so he was crowded against the wall. His eyes screwed shut, he slammed his head back hard against the wall. Her scent was everywhere – it was _inside_ him.

For one blessed, exhilarating moment, the thirst of his new, dead heart unified with every tender desire of his old living self. For a soaring moment, he felt like himself again – Not just a phantom in a repulsive shell.

“You promised me,” Rey murmured, her soft words a caress of life to which Ben clung. “Forever and more.”

She slid her hands into his. She neither flinched nor looked away from his face when she felt their frigid touch. Rey turned her left hand so the silver ring on her finger brushed against his skin in reminder. 

She didn’t expect Ben to hiss in pain, or for smoke to rise from their entwined fingers. 

His expression laden with hurt far beyond that of the physical, he lifted her left hand to cradle between both of his own. The smoke continued to rise – a smell like charcoal building.

“It burns me, Rey.” His whisper was dry and strained – barely managed. “Everything I once was.”

He clung to the searing touch of the ring he’d once given her until Rey broke her hands free. 

Rey shook her head resolutely. “Everything you once were is right here in front of me.” 

She slid the silver band off her finger and tucked it away into the small inner pocket of her jeans. 

“That was just a symbol. But you…” Rey lifted her bare hand slowly, deliberately spreading her fingers before laying them flat against Ben’s cheek. “You are everything I love. And you’re here.”

Ben stared straight into her eyes, the self-loathing churning until it began to brighten like a morning sky. 

His skin was cold. But his eyes were exactly the same. The way his lips went stiff with inexplicable, unendurable emotion was just the same.

Lost in him, Rey marveled, “You’re here. And I am still yours.”

Cupping his cheek, Rey tilted his head down to her so she could reach his mouth. So she could kiss him the way she always had. For over a month he’d been missing, and she’d missed his kisses most of all. 

At first, his mouth trembled beneath hers. She felt his fingertips shaking at her waist – Longing to hold her like he used to, but afraid what might happen if he did. Rey had no such fear. She kissed him until his arms tightened, until his lips gradually met the rhythm of hers.

Until she felt the sharp points of incisors growing against her tongue. Until she was locked inside his embrace and he’d taken over completely. 

Until she was home again. 

Rey dragged her mouth away only to turn her head so his roving mouth found her neck. 

“This is yours,” she whispered to him, reaching up to soothe her fingers through his hair. He made a sound at nearly breaking point as he licked across her pulse. 

Rey gasped, her body bucking against him. He hushed her, forcing himself with every ounce of his will to remain in control. The blood of the only woman he loved was only a breath away, but never again would he tear her skin when she wasn’t prepared for the pain. Not when she was so small and warm, trusting and holy in his arms.

Instead, he suckled at the deep, healing slashes he’d left in her skin, until Rey was whimpering and clinging to him to stay standing. 

He could live a thousand years and never forgive himself for marring her. So he would use his sin to bring her every pleasure he could. 

When Rey risked collapsing, Ben lifted her like a brush of breeze and carried her to the couch where they had kissed and argued and laughed a thousand times. He laid her out and when she reached up to pull him down against her, he could do nothing but give in to the call of her neck, pressing ardent, silent apologies to where he’d once made her bleed. 

“Let me, let me,” Rey begged until she was almost sobbing, her hands clinging to him to pull him closer. “Let me keep you. Let me nourish you.”

And then Ben surrendered just enough for need and instinct to consume him. His teeth extended in mad hunger for her. 

It happened so quickly. Far too effortlessly. 

His lips sealed to the base of her neck and his fangs slid so deeply into her, he swore he could taste her soul. 

Rey cried out in a sound of primal pleasure. Lightning shattered through her, radiating out from where Ben’s fangs pierced her. She writhed, helpless beneath the onslaught for a long, drowning moment.

There was pain - His teeth searing her like the points of iron-hot knives. But then she felt him begin to drink, and her veins flooded open – Eager to surrender their contents to him, while they were slowly filled with Ben’s essence pumping through her in heady intoxication. 

Rey’s legs fell open before wrapping around his waist as she gasped, holding him as tight to her as possible. She arched up against him, thighs clenching around his hips in a desperate attempt to bring their physical bodies as deeply, indistinguishable together as the rest of them. 

Ben drank her in hot mouthfuls of deliverance as Rey felt herself pouring into him; Felt her own strength pooling with his, her love for him erupting to flood them both when it crashed into his for her. 

He was everywhere. Beneath her skin, inside her heart, between her legs, setting the very core of her aflame. Until she could _feel_ him coursing within her – The same way she could feel her own lifeblood dancing inside him, warming and illuminating him after losing his way in the cold and dark. 

Rey was just beginning to think it would be impossible to disentangle from each other – that she would dissolve into him entirely – when his voice sounded within her mind, pleading:

_“Stop me. Stop me, Rey. Please – I can’t…”_

In her own body, Rey could feel how Ben trembled against her. She could feel how his muscles were taut and struggling to reclaim himself – To reach air again from oneness with her. Rey mustered the strength to do as he bade. 

She reached a trembling hand up to cup his jaw, and then to gently draw him away from her neck. He made a sound past broken when his fangs slid from her skin. 

Breathing hard from the exhilaration of him still lingering within her, and knowing it was herself within him that set his eyes alight, Rey cupped his face between her hands as she looked up at him. His eyes were glazed, his mouth smeared red. As he slowly reclaimed focus, Rey watched him lick lingering dark red drops from the points of his teeth. 

She shuddered hot, rubbing herself up against his soothingly cold frame.

Her thumb stroked his cheek as his eyes slid back into focus.

“You’re not alone,” Rey promised in a fervent whisper. “I’m part of you now.”

“And I’m part of you,” Ben pledged, his voice hoarse. He swiped his tongue across his teeth again, letting her see the shimmering secretion still leaking from his fangs. 

Rey’s pulse raced, knowing that was what she’d felt pumping into her from where he bit her. Knowing that was how she’d heard his voice in her head – How she felt his presence within the deepest corners of her, even now. 

Rey rose to kiss him, his arms hauling her up close against him as they shared the taste of her blood. 

After, Rey trembled in his arms as Ben bent his head and lapped at the twin puncture wounds. Gradually, they began to seal closed. Never would he leave another scar in her skin. 

It took Rey some time to realize the diamonds sparkling across her collarbone had fallen from his eyes.

_You must keep your soul like a secret in your throat._

~

“They’ll come for you,” Ben whispered against her soft, bare skin. So breakable, beneath his own cold, frightening strength. 

“Who?”

“The ones who attacked me; and their enemies.”

“Why?”

“You shouldn’t have survived. Your heart should have stopped. You should have become… like this.”

“Like you?”

Ben nodded in the dark, his head resting upon Rey’s naked chest. 

“Just like the monster who killed me, I would have doomed you to this same hell, if it wasn’t for what’s in your blood.”

“That man you stopped on the porch.” Ben gave a grim smile against her breast, hearing ‘man’ instead of ‘thing’; ‘Stopped’ instead of ‘killed.’ She forgave him too much, far too much. “He wanted my blood?”

“The pure blood of one who cannot be turned to serve death. Half fear it as their doom, and half would kill to drink a single drop.”

Swallowing hard, Rey smoothed her fingers through Ben’s hair. For a moment, she tried to imagine everything was just as it had been. But for the fact that Ben no longer breathed against her skin; but for the fact that he had no heartbeat, while hers beat for them both. 

“Is that why you bit me the first time? When you lost control?”

Brow furrowed, Ben lifted himself over her to see her face. Even in the dark, he could see her clearly. He caressed her jaw with a fingertip. 

“I lost control because I love you so terribly, and being like this turns love into something terrible.”

Rey reached up for him in the dark.

“I wish you could turn me.”

_“Rey.”_

“I wish your venom could extend my life, so I’d be full of you forever and we could share eternity.”

“Even if it were possible. The bite – I could just as easily kill you. In a single instant, I would lose you forever.”

“Isn’t that the gamble of this mortal life? We carry death with us always. Sometimes without any justice to speak of. For no reason. In an instant, or little by little each day. ”

“That’s what makes you human,” Ben marveled, still tracing the shape of her jaw, then where her pulse beat in her neck. So delicate, so finite, and yet the only sound with any meaning in his entire existence. “Sacred.”

“You’re sacred to me.”

Ben’s gaze rose to her eyes. He sensed that she could see him in the dark – His own enhanced senses taking root within her. When she reached up to smooth his hair from his eyes, his empty heart seized in something approximating salvation.

He bent to kiss her eyelids.

“I will protect you. No matter what happens, I won’t let any of them get to you. I swear it.”

_Not knowing you’d change from just one bite / I fought them all off just to hold you close and tight._

~

Ben extended an arm to keep Rey behind him, as if he could shield her from view. There were more of them than he had feared. 

“Know your place, newborn,” one of the two princes snarled at Ben. The man was already crouched between the trees, fangs bared as if only a moment from ordering his clan to attack. “You were turned by one of ours and you owe your obedience.”

“I owe nothing,” Ben spat. “And she owes you even less.”

“The blood of the angel owes us the unparalleled might in her blood.”

“That, or her destruction,” the second prince snarled, where his clan had cornered Ben and Rey after concealing themselves in the shadows of the woods. 

Ben stood tall and rigid, muscles tensed and prepared to explode into action as he looked between the princes of Light and Dark. Behind one, his vassals growled in impatience for the promise of the legendary blood of the blessed – The blood that might ease the torment of their damned existence. Behind the other, bloodthirsty hands clawed the ground in their terrorized eagerness to kill the vessel of such threatening purity.

Ben’s hands slowly formed iron fists. Behind him, Rey touched his shoulder. 

_I trust you._

~

In the glow of dawn, Ben had woken Rey with soft whimpers against her pulse point. She had sleepily twined her arms around him, kissed the side of his head, and whispered, “Drink.”

He had stopped himself this time, every drop of her blood making him stronger than any of his kind had ever been. But as he held her after, the words of love she’d murmured in his ear as he consumed what she offered were what surged through him with consummate grace.

~

They attacked together. The packs of Light and Dark had not united for a century, but now they launched themselves at Rey together.

Ben stood firm - An immovable defense before her. Once the enemy reached him, he knew neither mercy nor fatigue.

Moving at a speed unmatched by either clan, Ben caught each one who neared Rey. He crushed limbs and tore out throats. He cracked limbs, twisted necks, and broke bodies. In his mind, Rey warned him of attack from behind. She warned him of the ones rushing him with stakes, and called for him when one of the horde snuck past him. 

Clutching a stake in her own hands Ben had sharpened for her, Rey stood ready to defend herself. But even when one of the Dark clan nearly reached her with murder in his undead eyes (Ben’s still burned with life, she swore), Ben caught him from behind and ripped his head clean from the body. 

Unflinching, Rey took stock of the enemies behind him and quickly indicated the direction of the next threat. Ben launched himself back into battle with a savage snarl. In the blur of bodies and sprays of ichor, she could barely keep track of him. 

On the other side of the melee, the Light prince made a noise of outrage. 

“The fledgling usurped the blood of the angel! He’s stolen her might for himself. Punish his impudence!”

The entirety of the Light clan rushed him at once, and then Rey found him – Pinned to the ground beneath the snapping jaws of innumerable monsters. 

“NO!” 

When Rey shouted, her voice took shape in the air. Every body that had been piled atop the object of her defense and affection was thrown into the air by a shockwave that purified the air. Howling in pain, bodies fell to the ground with burns singed across them.

Untouched, Ben rose to his feet again. He looked back at Rey in a brief moment of wonder.

Their eyes met. And then, fearing for their lives, the horde descended in full.

~

Ben was supposed to wait until they reached the top of the Ferris wheel. 

But Rey had tucked herself in against his side and grinned up at him with the sun of a thousand summer’s days.

The lights from the fair, growing smaller and more distant below them, had lit up her face so beautifully; he felt a physical ache in his chest.

He had no hope of patience.

Rey had clapped her hands over her mouth, drawing back from him in round-eyed shock when Ben produced the small velvet box and opened the lid.

They were only a quarter of the way to the top, and already the words were rushing out. The rehearsed declaration that ended with the question delivered more uncertainly than he’d intended: “Will you marry me? The only light of my life?”

Rey had almost sent them both tumbling from the booth with the excitement of her embrace. 

“Yes, Ben, yes!”

With tears stinging his eyes and a smile so wide it almost hurt, Ben slid the silver ring into place on Rey’s finger. As her grin twinkled up at him, he lifted her hand to kiss the ring she’d just accepted. 

“Forever and more.”

Her nose bumping his in her haste to kiss him, Rey laughed in joy as she returned the vow. 

“Forever and more.”

~

Together, they felt the moment Ben was overpowered. 

Once the two princes began ordering their forces in coordination, they leveraged their numbers to keep Ben incapacitated while the rest rushed Rey. 

Fighting with every ounce of his strength – Fighting with a cause and a devotion so much greater than any of his enemies, Ben for a time caught up to them all, even inches from Rey’s throat. 

When the first one made it past Ben while three leapt upon him, Rey steeled herself. She rushed forward and shoved the stake as deep into the rabid woman’s chest as she could, before teeth could come anywhere near her. 

But then Rey looked up, and realized there was no time. Not to retrieve the stake from the woman’s chest. Not to run. Not for anything but acceptance.

Ben freed himself with a roar, sending bodies scattering. His gaze wild and distraught, he spun to find Rey. 

She didn’t move; just stood still and met his gaze, so he would hear her clearly. 

_Please. I want it to be you._

~

“If there are too many of them… if they ambush us… If it comes to that, I don’t want them to end it. I don’t want to give them that power.”

“Rey…,” he choked, her words sinking a dagger into his chest.

“Please promise me.”

She’d taken his hand, and whatever was left of Ben’s heart had broken and fled, to see her looking at him with entreaty in her eyes for something so unthinkable. To beg him for mercy that took such a horrific shape. 

“I don’t want anyone else’s venom in my veins. I don’t want anyone else’s teeth in my skin.” 

She’d squeezed his cold hand, and Ben had thought his heart had to be equally cold. There was nothing left of him anymore.

“I…. I promise,” he’d whispered, the words burning him from the inside like holy water. 

~

_No, Rey, Rey please, I promised I’d save you, I swore it._

_You can save me._

_Not this way, anything but this way._

_You promised, Ben. Don’t leave me to their clutches. I won’t get to spend my life with you like I wanted, at least let me spend death with you._

The wordless exchange fired between them in an instant. Only a mere second passed, as Rey’s dire conviction hardened and Ben’s soul shattered. 

She looked so magnificently certain; The only hint of fear the damp corners of her eyes as she took in the sight of Ben for the last time. As she waited for him to deliver her – For the only ending that would grant her peace. 

As dozens of the horde surged towards her, Rey stood tall and still, awaiting Ben. 

Her faith in him pierced him straight through. In the last split second before it was too late, Ben propelled himself through them all. 

For that single final moment, Ben realized he had indeed still been alive. Only a human heart could suffer such devastation. 

Rey closed her eyes, a slight smile on her face to welcome him. 

Ben tore through her neck. He closed his jaw straight through her spinal cord to end it instantly. 

He caught her before she fell, sinking to the forest floor with her body cradled in his arms and empty sobs already causing him more ruin than the entire battle ever could.

Around him, everything stopped. The clans froze in their tracks, looking with uncertainty back to their leaders. 

None had ever witnessed the death of one with blood of the angel. They couldn’t be turned, but they were still mortal. But whether something lay beyond mortality for those of blessed blood had never been known.

The Light and Dark princes advanced through the trees, until they could see her equally coveted, revered, and feared blood spilling to the forest floor. Until they could see her favored fledgling rocking her lifeless body. 

It would take several hours before they could know what was to be done. 

Ben cared for none of it, mindless in his grief. He kept stroking her face as if he could stop her skin turning pale; kept rocking her as if he could wake her once more; kept pleading her name as if he could beg her to return to him.

If not for the warmth still lingering in her body that kept him cradling her, he would have torn at his skin and dug out his own monstrous heart. He would have destroyed every bit of the beast that had done this. 

“Sorry, I’m sorry, Rey, I’m sorry. You should have never met me. If I hadn’t attacked you that first time, none of this would have… You’d be alive and happy somewhere. Your smile would still be in this world. Nothing will shine without you. I’ll never be the same after loving you, light of my life…”

Murmuring spread through the still crowd of onlookers as tears ran down Ben’s face. Since their deaths, none of their kind had ever shed real tears. 

“Because he drank the blood of the angel.”

“Or because he’s newly turned, there’s something still human in him.”

“Or because… none of us have ever loved like that.”

Alone in his loss and self-loathing, Ben found the pocket of her jeans where Rey had tucked away her ring. The burn of the silver against his fingers had never been a sweeter relief. 

He deserved flames. 

With wisps of smoke rising, Ben slid the engagement ring back into its place on Rey’s hand even as it seared his fingers. Then he looked up again, and used his burned fingers to smooth Rey’s hair back from her face. 

“Please, Rey. My love. I never got to marry you and you promised… You promised forever and more.”

He lowered his forehead to hers, closing his eyes and trying to imagine he could hear the music of her heartbeat resuming a slow tempo to carry her back within his reach. 

“Come back to me, Rey. Forever and more. We swore.”

As the hours passed, Ben was only distantly aware of the two clans making their preparations for every outcome. He didn’t move from the ground, still holding Rey even after she went cold and her blood stopped pooling in the grass beneath them.

On one side, the Dark clan lined up behind their prince with swords and shovels in hand, ready to bury her fathoms beneath the earth. 

On the other, two members of the Light clan had come to stand beside their prince, bearing two crowns woven of branches and gold. 

The Light prince bowed his head in reverence. “Should she revive, she shall be Queen of us all. She shall rule with him favored by the angel, granted to drink of her sacred blood.”

Ben shook his head numbly. With the entire forest watching on, he laid Rey down gently to repose in the bloodied grass. Still, he could not look away from her, ceaselessly willing her to stir.

_From the Earth to the morgue._

“I don’t want to rule anything,” Ben spoke, voice hoarse and crackling. “I only want her by my side. Otherwise I cannot bear this world.”

He could see two paths stretching before him into the distance of eternity. One holding all the light of the world, streaming undimming from her opened eyes. The other: The search for the holy touch of death for the wretched undying. 

Again, he extended cold fingers to stroke her equally cold cheek. 

“We swore.”

 _And as always, innocents like roller coasters / Fatality is like ghosts in snow._

Beyond the forest, dawn covered the world.

**Author's Note:**

> The [musical inspiration](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gKuazcxlhOaBKEyGelDK7) for this fic has wanted to find expression for a long time, so it's a relief to finally have Ben and Rey who seemed so perfect for it. I'm really not usually one to write angst like this, so I'm very curious to hear people's thoughts on how I did the ending... And all aspects! Thank you so much for reading. <3


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